Collecting Arizona

From its earliest days as a territory when prospectors searched for gold and silver to the giant copper camps of the twentieth century to today when Tucson is a mecca for mineral collectors worldwide, the historical fabric of Arizona is woven with minerals.

The book endeavors to provide a sense of the people, places, and times that spawned the state's mineral discoveries. It begins with a geologic overview, but the story is more a history than a scientific treatise and is divided into chapters, each covering a distinct era beginning with the pre-Territorial period when missionaries, soldiers, and prospectors made the earliest inroads into the uncharted Pimería Alta, which would become southern Arizona.

“Collecting Arizona” is a Centennial tribute to the state's legacy of mineral specimens; to those who spent time digging, documenting, and preserving that legacy; and to the great State of Arizona, which is built on its minerals and its mines.